Grumpy's Castle; Last Days of October 2010 --
As some of the more knowledgeable members of the Clan are already aware, the Grumpy One really got himself in deep "doo-doo" with his desk-top computer this past couple of weeks. It all started with the irresistible temptation to Upgrade his desktop to Windows 7 operating system. Let me start at the beginning of the process.
First, after carefully reading the instructions (ha! ha! you all thought I would skip them, didn't you!?), and purchasing and installing a brand new half-Terabyte SATA hard-drive, Grumpy gently placed the legal MS CD in the DVD drive and pushed "GO", intending that the upgrade would be installed on the new drive.
Somewhere, I apparently missed the clue that the upgrade was being installed on the same drive as the EOM Windows XP operating system. The first time this was noticed was when I rebooted the computer, expecting to start enjoying the exciting, new Windows 7 operating system. To my surprise, I was greeted with a choice of two operating systems. Fine; either one worked just great at this point.
Next, I proceeded to MOVE (not COPY!) several of my most prized folders of data from the IDE drive to the SATA drive. At some point, not being content with my new OS installed on the same IDE drive as my XP OS, I then decided to reinstall the Windows 7 operating system onto the SATA drive. [At this point, Grumpy neglected to heed the warning label on the Windows 7 upgrade package about SAVEing all your data on a different drive before installing Windows 7. Alas, when all was said and one, my most prized folders were no where to be seen!!
What is even worse, suddenly Grumpy found that he couldn't even access the IDE drive!! An UNERASE program was downloaded (onto the SATA drive), but not being able to "see" the IDE drive rendered the unerase program useless. After much council with Number One Son, gnashing of teeth and sweating blood over Grumpy's carelessness, the #1 Son suggested a data recovery outfit who might be able to salvage Grumpy's self-made disaster.
After a detailed communication with the data recovery person via telephone, Grumpy shipped off his deaf, blind and dumb hard-drive to this outfit for their diagnosis, investigation of what (if any) data was recoverable, and an estimate as to how much said recovery would cost. I await their e-mail some time this week.
Stay tuned for follow-on -- "smoke" and tears, or cheers of joy!!
Sometimes the funniest things are hidden: your label "dumb things I've done" stands out.
ReplyDeleteAs a humble and self deprecating patriarch I would expect you to use it more in the future, especially if you were to threaten lemon pie futures.
However, don't be too hard on yourself, deleting files is easier than ever.
Then again so is backing up.
As a "humble and self-deprecating Patriarch", I take seriously my duty to honestly admit my short-comings at any time they become apparent.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, in the future (as you are suggesting), I should take care to make sure that more of my short-comings are more apparent. Especially when Lemons are "in season".
Thanks, my ever-faithful Grand Son, never reticent to expound the Truth about his Grandpa Z!
[Deleting files may be easy; but getting "certain people" -- Grandsons and Grandma -- to forget an inadvertent misdeed is something else!]
I sure am glad I have a Mac!
ReplyDeleteThese smug people and their "MAC's"!
ReplyDeleteKinda reminds me of the olden times when the VW was first introduced into the US markets; people who owned one were incessantly boasting about their fantastic gas mileage.
Enough to make a grown man cry.
I bought a 1TB external hard drive to use as a backup solution. It has enough space to copy all of my personal (and very important) files seven times. I keep one folder for each day of the week, and automatically back up all my stuff each day. So WHEN (not IF) I make a mistake like you did, I might have a chance to recover my stuff.
ReplyDeleteI have done it before, and I'll probably do it again, and having a Mac doesn't eliminate the need for a backup.
If you would like a copy of the script I use, I would be happy to share it with you.